2022 Drama Challenge

First time I’m doing this challenge but I had fun answering them!

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Q4 2022 Drama Watch List

October 2022
31. May It Please The Court – 9

November 2022
32. Alchemy of Souls part 1 – 8.25
33. Yonder – 8.5
34. You Are My Glory – 9

December 2022
35. Love is For Suckers – 7.5
36. Fanletter Please – 8.5
37. Behind Every Star – 8
38. Cheer Up – 7
39. First Love: Hatsukoi (JDrama) – 8.5
40. Reborn Rich – 9
41. Money Heist Korea Part 2 – 8.5

Movies / Drama Special / Documentary
18. Assassination – 9
19. 20th Century Girl – 8.5
20. Chronicle of a Blood Merchant – 9
21. Illang Wolf Brigade – 7.5

Variety Shows
5. Sixth Sense S3
6. Youth MT

Total Dramas watched in Q4: 11
Total Year to Date Dramas Watched: 41

Dropped in Q4: None

Ongoing Shows:
1. Work Later, Drink Now S2 up to ep 2
2. She and Her Perfect Husband up to ep 20

Cheer Up (2022)

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Drama: Cheer Up (치얼업)
Network: SBS
Episodes: 16
Release Date: October 3 – December 13, 2022
Runtime: Mon & Tue 22:00
Language: Korean
Country: South Korea

Plot: The story a Yoon Hee Cheering Squad

Main Cast
Han Ji Hyun – Do Hae Yi
Bae In Hyuk – Park Jung Woo
Kim Hyun Jin – Jin Sun Ho

Review
I had high expectations about the drama, I thought this was going to be like Racket Boys but I was very wrong.

The first 2 episodes were done well, although it was nothing special. I love Do Hae Yi, she was a fun fighting girl but her energy slowly depleted in the latter episodes, I thought where was the charming and agressive girl on episodes that had all the boys fighting over her?

At first I continued watching because I wanted to see the cheering squad routines and possible cheer competitions, who will get killed and who’s the killer, and seeing Hae Yi and Jung Woo together, but almost everything I was waiting for didn’t happen!

I was expecting cheering squad to be those like the Bring It On move, where they wear sexy cheer outfits with pompoms dancing and doing athletic slips, jumps and somersaults, but the Yoonhee cheer squad were singing school anthems and doing these weird hand movements (yes, they’re still athletic and I admire them) in cringey outfits (but as expected from Andre Kim). Also, there were no cheer off with Ho Kyung cheering squad (they were actually friendly rivals). There were no cheer competitions at all, the story mostly focused within Yoon Hee like the school festival is their main event, they don’t cheer at the side in sports competitions. The story is also boring, mostly about cheer practices and doing overnight team building. Almost everyone in the cheering team became a couple except for Sunho. They spent more time dating than cheering!!

The 3 prophesies were intriguing, but it was just dragged for too long but it wasn’t fun anymore. The whole stalker-psycho storyline ended up being so unnecessary to the story. His motivations and reasons are too dumb to feel anything for him. they should have scrapped the murder mystery plot and focused on cheerdancing.

The only thing that kept me staying was Captain Park Jung Woo. He is so cute and nice, sweet boyfriend to Hae Yi, very understanding too despite Hae Yi always breaking his heart.

Sunho as the 2ML at the start I thought, ok he might be the puppy kind but he was super annoying and clingy as F! Hae Yi told him so many times she isn’t interested but he kept insisting to be with her. And when she rejects him again, he looks like a puppy that was kicked out in the rain. When Jung Woo and Hae Yi were together, he was still trying to get her to like him. (C’mon move on loser!) I hate that the writer seems to like Sunho more than Jung Woo — even tried to break them apart unnecessarily.

The rest of the cheer members were so-so. I like Hae Yi’s best friend Sun Ja, but I didn’t like that she ends up with the geek with glasses. He wasn’t such a sourpuss at Hae Yi when she was the only one good at cheering, and he was so bad at it. I also like Yong Il, but I didn’t think he needed to end up with Cho Hee. No comment on Woon Chan and the twin sisters. Yoo Min was so pretty, but she coming back to the team didn’t really add anything to the story – she wasn’t able to solve the whodunit mystery, and she was never a strong contender to break the leads apart.

I’m surprised I was able to finish this drama. I almost gave up on ep 10 and was mostly fast forwarding, esp ep 15 which I thought was forced to put a last minute crisis. But this drama surprisingly ended well with almost all loose ends neatly tied.

Rating: 7/10 (I’n probably rating this higher than it should be)

Fanletter, Please (2022)

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Drama: Please Send Me A Fan Letter (팬레터를 보내주세요)
Network: MBC
Episodes: 4
Release Date: November 18 – November 26, 2022
Runtime: Friday & Saturday 22:00
Language: Korean
Country: South Korea

Plot
A father writes a fake fanletter from a popular celebrity to his ill daughter in hopes to keep her happy, but ends up getting found out in public. The popular celebrity goes to find the kid and realizes it’s the daughter of her first love. Will they both find love this time around?

Main Cast
Choi Soo Young – Han Kang Hee
Yoon Park – Bang Jung Seok
Shin Yeon Woo – Bang Yoona

Review
I expected this to be a romcom but this turned out to be a melodrama. The first 2 episodes were light, and sweet, showing a little some flashbacks of Kang Hee and Jung Seok’s high school relationship and how they meet again as adults with adult issues. The second half was more serious, focusing on healing and finding love again. The story is simple, nothing new, but it worked because of the 2 leads and the cute kids. I liked the first love trope and the leads meeting again still liking each other after all these years. And how they support each other.

Being a celebrity is really tough. You just get too many haters and people can easily ruin your reputation with a lie. But it’s worse if the lies are coming from classmates and friends. I like Kanghee, I wish she had more friends who can defend her.

I also like Jungseok. Hope there’s a way he can go back to being a lawyer although I understand his kid’s welfare is more important to him. But maybe now with Kang hee beside him, he can have more helping hand.

Some might feel that the overall mood of the drama is gloomy and might find this boring, but I didn’t because it was tightly written and was only for 4 episodes.

Rating: 8.5/10